Reactivity of the 1,3‐β‐D‐glucan assay during bacteraemia: limited evidence from a prospective study

There are discrepancies in the retrospective studies published in literature of whether or not bacteraemia could lead to false positivity of 1,3‐β‐D (BG) glucan assay. We performed, for the first time, a prospective study evaluating the role of bacterial bloodstream infection to the reactivity of BG assay. Twenty‐six episodes of bacteraemia that occurred in high‐risk haematological patients were included in our study. Consecutive BG levels >80 pg ml^?1 were required for test positivity. Only 2 of 26 patients were BG positive – both with IFDs. Thus, we prospectively did not prove bacteraemia as the source of cross reactivity of BG assay in haematological patients.